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Most of my game time over the last few months has been going to StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm multiplayer. I've been having a lot of fun creating my own crazy strategies and seeing how far I can get while using non-standard builds and play-styles. My goal is to get good enough at the game that I can actually give all the crazy ideas I've had a fair shot. I was never able to achieve that goal in StarCraft 1 (despite years of trying), but in terms of mechanics StarCraft 2 is a much easier game.

I've also been playing Guild Wars 2 extremely casually since it came out. I think my highest level character is still only in her mid thirties, though I do have five characters that I'm playing simultaneously. I am absurdly fond of my characters considering I don't think very highly of the game itself. The only reason I play the game at all is that I actually find myself missing them after awhile.

Mostly Top Spin 4 which is a great game. Easy to pick up, hard to master.

Online is where it's at: I've played three games in our tournament so far and lost two, so the next one is a must-win if I have any hope of qualifying for the QFs.

The main issue is that you get bogged down creating new players with different builds, testing them out and abandoning them. It seems to be very difficult to survive online without a high Power stat, so then you try and build your preferred playstyle around that - eg focus on mobility, serve, reactions etc. Tough.

Unpacked the Wii U to play Pikmin 3 and Earthbound. Both games are great. Pikmin 3 is Pikmin, but reeaally pretty. Earthbound is just as enjoyable as I have been hearing all of these years. Happy to have a Wii U now.

Papers, Please Fascinating stuff, very addictive. Being a self-confessed pedant, I find checking the passport and documents of immigrants, cross-referencing everything, and making sure there are no discrepencies pretty entertaining. If you let someone through who oughtn't do, you get penalised money, and lack of money means you can't look after your family between shifts- so far, my son, uncle, and mother-in-law have all died, leaving just my wife.

Occasionally, you'll get bribed to let people through, or be asked to make pretty grim moral choices- SPOILER
In one early stage, you let a young woman into the country, and after you give her the go ahead and give back her documents, she gives you a message before leaving, asking you to not let a certain man enter the country, as she fears he will take away her passport and force her into being a prostitute. Sure enough, the guy appears a while later. His papers check out, so you have to choose between doing your job and protecting a stranger. Needless to say, old JLB1987 does his job properly, though it was genuinely sad to read the newspaper article after the stage had finished.

On a more general note, the dark tone tends to continue throughout- a backstory heavily featuring terrorism, war, and opression (at one point, you are asked to target people from a specific country, scanning them- and only them- through an xray), and is genuinely very depressing. Even the basic graphics add to the atmosphere. Love it, possibly my game of the year, though I'm dubious how much replayability is here, rather than playing through again helping people/ taking bribes.

I've been sitting on a mint copy of Alundra (Playstation) for about a year now. I finally decided to play the game, and even though the controls can be quite frustrating, the game is quite enjoyable. I've put about 10 hours into it so far.

I wouldn't mind playing this but I think it would be too depressing. Also, not sure how I would get on with all the cross referencing - dates etc - under pressure.

I started Bioshock: Infinite last night, and am pleasantly surprised so far. Despite not liking the floating city idea, I got it for half price, so why not.

Still not comfortable with the floating city concept - where do they grow their food? - but I like the wacky iconography of the place, and the shooting is fine so far. I have just reached Monument Island, so a long way to go.

It's depressing and tense (everytime I let someone through, I hold my breath and expect to hear the sound of the fax machine printing out a telling-off). It's a great game, but I can certainly imagine it's not for everyone.

If it helps, the story mode builds up nicely. You start of by only allowing citizens into the country, then foreigners with a permit, and it esculates until you're given a list of wanted criminals each day, and other things to look out for like forged documents. It certainly makes you think (though, unlike some people, I have no problem doing things "by the book").

I am downloading Madden 25 as we speak, so there's a few days of entertainment and getting up to speed before our online league starts. I'm actually downloading the US version as the Euro one isn't out till Friday. Sad!

I've also been SL1-ing Dark Souls. Beat Ornstein and Smough, and am now pottering around in Lost Izalith. I doubt I'll get anywhere near finishing it, but it's a good one to dip into every now and again.

Max Payne 3, which is a part of another excellent recent Xbox Live sale. Being a pretty big fan of the originals, I was worried the new cover system would make it feel more generic, but it still feels very Max Payne. Multi-player is also awesome, though difficult to find good people to play the co-op mode with. Also appreciate all the influences on single-player, from lifting the story straight from Man On Fire, to the clear Breaking Bad style flash-foward near the start of the game (complete with bald Max Payne). The scenes with Max drinking in his apartment are dark, and fits in with the bizarre, depressing vibe of the previous entries. Best gaming investment in a while.

Papers, Please excellent game! Can't add much to what JLB wrote. Everyone should have a look at this. Yes, also Pedro Not being able to get all the cross-referencing right under pressure is part of the game. I don't want to say too much, because of potential spoilers, but it is brilliant. Got it on gog.com.

Sir, you are being hunted (alpha) procedurally generated Tweedpunk horror game in a very British countryside. Being hunted by homicidal robots in tweed with top hats and robot-dogs? Time for a cup of tea...

Multi-player is horribly unbalanced. Chances are, if you play, you'll find a lot of people duel-wielding. If you have this set up, it seems to be very easy to kill. These people tend to dominate the matches they are in. Also, the game's version of "kill streaks" ensures that good players get rewarded with extra help, and bad players get nothing. It is somewhat less unfair than, say, COD here- rather than direct kill streaks, the game used a three tier system of "adrenaline", and each stage is more effective than the last. For example, with the bullet-time "burst", one bar full gives you 2.5 seconds of slowdown, two tiers gives you 4 seconds, etc. You only lose part filled bars of adrenaline. That is, if you have one and a half tiers filled and you die, you only lose the half-bar. You respawn with the full bar. Also, adrenaline can be earned by looting dead players and (I think) completeing objectives, if you're playing in gang wars mode, meaning that it is possible to get these rewards even if, like me, you're not very good at the game. This said, I still enjoy multiplayer very much.

EDIT: Also need to mention the single player. Nothing spectacular, but the story is great (fairly standard action theme going, but certainly no worse than 75% of action films out there), and I love the attention to detail. If Max has a pistol drawn, he will hold his "main" gun in his other hand. If he duel-wields, he drops the big gun altogether, rather than have it disappear into his inventory. You can watch shows on TV, including "Captain Baseball Bat Boy, but in Brazil, it's overdubbed in Portuguese or something.